Means for the parallelization of textile fibers in machines for preparing same for spinning



Nov. 1, 1927.

G. C. LAURENCY MEANS FOR THE} PARALLELIZATION OF TEXTILE FIBERS IN MACHINES FOR PREPARING SAME FOR SPINNING Filed Nov. 28, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet l WWW 70F GuIHaurne C\emen\ Laurencz AT/W/P/VB I W Nov. 1, 1927. 1,647,454

' G. C. LAURENCY MEANS FOR THE PARALLELIZATION 0F TEXTILE FIBERS IN MACHINES FOR PREPARING SAME FOR SPINNING F-iledNov. 28. 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Nov. 1, 1927 ,W E S ATs UIL e-r'r nn CLEMENT nennnno fonmrnnnns zinnenennj mnnns'ron- THE rnnllmnnrznrrori or TEXTILE rrnnns m MAcnIiiEs sc ms: 1

reams Application filed November 2 1935, SerialNon The purpose of the present invention is to enable machines Which prepare textile materials for spinning,-v such as carding engines, to straighten and parallelize the fibers or filaments of these materials, so that the said fibers or filaments may be placed lcngtlr Wisebefore passing on to the operations following' that of carding.

A Broadly stated, the invention consists in usingin conjunction With cylinders provided With needle points or card clothing one or more cylinders having a covering of leather orother similar material, provided with channels in the metal surface of the said cylinders, in combination with flexible blades pressed against a circumferentialportion ct said cylinders in order to obtain friction between the leather or channels and said blades, thersaid friction commencing at a point close to the 'saidneedles or card clothing in order to remove the fibers lodged betweenv them, andthe said fibers being torci ot a continuous fleece over the whole idth,

bly straightened and rendered parallel by sliding between the said needles which ad- Vance more slowly than the leather covering 7 or channels of the cylinders.

n 1 The invention further comprises noveldetails ofconstrnction, arrangement and-con binations'of parts all as hereinafter fully de-' scribed and set forth in appended claims. The accompanyingdrawings show examples ofthe application of this invention to existing machines. Figures 1 2, 3} and stare partial views showing the invention applied toe card engine which; delivers the fibers in. the lo a ot the machineyivhich fleece may berolled up in superposed layers or otherwise in the usual manner, or can al'sobe condensed into a singleribbon, or divided intonarrovv ribbons which are condensed in the rubbers and which, in thiscase; form the slivers -.or preparation yarn for spinning machines.

' Figs. 5 and 6', respectively, "show the ap- 1 plication of the invention to a cardingengine having it ring .doffer, and to onewith double ring dofiersthQse two machines; as is known, supplying the fieecein the, form, of narrow ribbons, as above mentioned.

In these examples the cylinders B, C- 1 rotate at progressive circumferent al speeds."

"ill-he cylinders A and -;C are clothed with leather or other similarmaterial, but not of.

a slippery-nature, and the cylinder is proin-Fig. 5; izvhen:thefieecei isdivided into non SPINNING.

72,945, and in Great Britain December 5, i924."

vided with fine needles inclined 51+ hooked;

like the; teeth'of card-clothing. The cylin der A 1s placed adjacent the dofi'er of the.

- A portion of the circnmference of each of the cylinders A,- B, C issurrounded by very flexible metal blades, which are pressed against the peripheries-of the said cylinders.

by spring members; and saidspring-menibers, which secure the contact ofthe blades; with the cylinders, are fastened] to cross-,- bars-G placed- .longitudinally beneath the said cylinders.

In I the construction sho and 4;, theblades 0:; which surround a poi" g: 5, and at ;D 1

tion. of the cylindersfll 13 0, are inclinedto the axes of the cylindersatv about "3.0 and form segments of ,ahelix which meet in close points or neet closely at tl1e;i r edges,

the friction .otthe cylinders constantly tend? ing to press themtogether. In the construe v tion illustratedin F ig s.; 5 and 6,.the blades a areiplacedat right angles; that is to say,

I perpendicularly to"therotary motion ofthe I cylinders, and they dolnot contactvvith'each other. These'blades give, caving to their, I

resiliency,; each time the machine delivers I the fibers inthe form-of acontinu'ons fleece over the whole wor-lring Width ofthe carding i engine, in order to prevent the fibers from being held back at the junctions of thelsaid blades; they may be at'right. angti rib.,-bons before undergoing tlie operation o't combing and drawing-, because the said blades can be wider than the sa'ig l,i-i libmis Without meeting one -a-1iother.

' This Width of thewblades depends further] s on their flexibility and on the rigidityoff the ;c linder 'onyvhicli the work' the can y y a y besides be so much JWlCleI ,as-the .cylinder is more rigidanda single platepre'ssed on all the length of this cylinderby theseries of drawing along of the fibers.

loo springs e' canevenf 111 this case assure the 3 carding machinehas deposited between the needles of the K6.0 3561 11), are Withdrawnfrom:

the latter by- ;the" cylinder lAIWhen they. reach the pointm; and jare then conveyed by the leather suriace of this ,cylinderA" and pressed against this-surface, they slide over -the.;';blades at, a speedleqn a-l to that votthe periphery of the said cylinder. As the circumferential speed of the cylinder A is greater than that of the doifer D, the fibers drawn by said cylinder are compelled'to slide'between the said needles of the (lOflEl, whereby the rear portion of the said fibers is straightened and arranged parallel with the movement of the cylinders by this movement, since the needles of the dofler advance more slowlythan the leather covering or channels of the cylinder. The forward portion of the fibers which first reaches the point 12,, is then straightened and made par allel, in its turn, by the cylinder 13, which has a circumferential speed greater than that of the cylinder A; the needles of said cylinder 13 slide between the fibers as long as the latter are held by the blades onthe cylinder'i i, but when the fibers are corn-- pletely free at the point'n from said cylinder A, they advance with the needles of .cylinder. B to the point m of the cylinder C, and the latter draws them also at an accelerated speed which causes them to slide again between the needles of cylinder B,

'fbut' ina direction contrary to the former as ill they are again drawn by their forward portion. 7

The principle of combing and drawing of the fibers in both directions in carding machines, which was devised by myself in 1900, has never yet been utilized forthe following reasons :-As will be seen from the specification of English Letters Patent No. 18,781, A. D, 1900, which was grantedto me at that period, I employed cylinders having an elastic covering, the friction of which in a cavity formed in a rigid metal block effected the drawingand conveyance of the fibers, but it was impossible to practically obtain a regular pressure for this friction over the whole length of the cavity with cylinders which could only be supported at their ends It is true that the elastic covering of the-cylinders permitted of obtaining friction over the whole surface, but the pressure of this friction varied at all points '11 the length of the cylinder and moreover, this elasticity prevented the combing and drawing by hindering the entrance and conveyance of the fibers into the cavity.

An elastic covering is compressed before entering the cavity of the metal block, its friction producing aswelling of the flexible material at the entrance side for the fibers,

' and the greater the pressure of the cylinder,

the more this "swelling extends beyondthe rigid or hard edge of the metal block. The seeds, lumps and other impurities which travel with the fibers are not conveyed with them' into the cavity, but remain at the entrance thereof on the rigid edge of the metal block causing accumulation of fibers to which they close the passage and which become hardened by the friction of the casing 'while producing in the latter grooves, the

depth of which increases at each revolution of the cylinder. Notwithstandingthe elasticity of the material, these grooves continue to exist after the removal of the 'callosities which have occasioned them, and they form breakages of contact between the cylinder and the cavity of the metal block. Now this contact is indispensable over the whole length of the cylinder in order to cause the fibers to slide between the needles and consequently attain the object of the invention. The provision of channels in the said elastic covering has not removed these'inconveniences but on the contrary has furthered the formation of the grooves while increasing the degree of swelling of the fibers above mentioned.

The substitution for the rigid metal block of the ilGXlblG blades above described, such as those shown in Fig.5, combined with a leather covering for the cylinders, without elastic foundation has imparted to the cylinders a sufficient rigidity while transferring the elasticityto the equivalentof the inetal block, and the defects referred to were disposed of, but in spite of the greatest care debris of the fibers, seeds and other impurities were arrested at the junction of the blades, hindering the regular forward movement of the fleece. The helical arrangement of the blades shown in Fig, 2 was necessary to remove this fresh inconvenience, and these blades form a partialcasing flexible at all points of its surface 'and its contact is assured with an'equal pressure over its whole length. The blades are separately moved away from the cylinder to allow the accumulation of fibers and foreign bodies presenting themselves, and the fibers pass freely over the junction of the blades which they traverse obliquely; It has, therefore, been impossible to put into practice my said prior invention be cause of the defects above briefly pointed out ;therefore the combing and drawing and the parallelization of the fibers in the carding engine were not realized thereby. The length of the blades which work with the cylinder B must be greater than that of the longest fibers, so that the latter may never be engaged at the same time by both cylinders A and G, whereas they can very wellbe engaged at the same time by the doffer D, cylinder A and cylinder B,rsince their ends can slide between the, needles of the doflYerD as well as between those of cylinders A and B; and for this reasona greater diameter is given to the said cylin derB. i The clothingfor the cylinders A and C can be provided with straight or helical channels, and in certain cases, said clothing, can be replaced by grooves cut in the metal of the cylinder. The acceleration of speed we p ill)

. in Fig. 5.

' obtained thereby is not deranged.

of the cylinders depends on the amount of combing and drawing to which the kind of fiber is to be subjected, and this combing and drawing operation can of course be repeated by increasin the number of cylinders.

It is to be remarked that Fig. 2 shows in plan a portion of the dofi'er D with the cylinders and flexible blades seen in section in 'Fig. 1. Fig. 5 shows the arrangement of the blades placed at right angles, and employed for the combing and drawing of ribbons obtained with the ring-doffer'D and Fig. 6 shows on a reduced scale an application of the inventlon to a carding englne having double ring doffers like that shown In this last case the invention must obviously be applied to each of the two dolfers. as indicated in said Fig. 6.

The fibers deposited by the main cylinder T of the carding engine between the needles mounted on the rings of the doflers D and D are removed by the cylinder A and trans mitted to the successive cylinders B and Gin the same manner as described in the first construction and the ribbons, which are of the same width as the doffer rings, are then condensed in the rubbers F and H and wound in the usual manner. i It will be seen that in this application of the invention the combing and drawing operations'are performed, after the division of the. fleece, and the parallelism ofthe fibers The drawing operation which is effected at the same time as the combing, allows the ribbons to 'be considerably elongated, Y and. consequently slivers maybe produced as line.

as desired with rings'of ordinary width on the doffers. The result is that the application of the invention to-machines with aring dofier or two ring doifers permits the use of apparatus known as p fiQlldensersz" and the'like to be dispensedwith, the sole purpose of which is to enable slivers to beobtained of a finer'character than with the ring doffers. The slivers with parallel fibers are moreover much more easily elongated in the spinning machines.

'F or the first passage of the fibers through the carding machine, the cylinder B of Fig. 1 canbe provided with very inclined conical needles and the speed of the cylinder C considerably. increased in relation to that of thecylinder B. In these conditions the fibers are more quickly withdrawn from the needles of cylinder B, leaving thewaste and with .1 rollers having their surfaces adapted to retain and convey the'fi'bers by friction, of a. set of flexible blades arranged helically over a portion of the circumferences ofthe' said cylinder and rollers; the blades of each helix thus formed being pressed one against another by the rotation of corresponding cylinder or roller and forming a flexible cas I ing at all points of its surface, the fibers drawn along by the friction being adapted to traverse said blades obliquely.

" 2. In a machin for preparing textile materialsfor' spinning, the combination with ings to move therefrom .in order'to afford aassa 'e to form n substances of reater volsaid springs.

ume than the fibers, and rigid supports for 3. In a machine for preparing textile'ma 'terials for spinnlng, the combination with a dofferhaving card clothing of a cylinder,

rotating at a greater circiunferential speed than said doifer, such cylinderlhaving a rigid fiuted surface which ,cannot 'loe deformed, and a casingconstituted by a plu- :rality of elastic blades adapted to be pressed against a circumferential partof saidcylin der to obtain a uniform and limited friction between the rigid surface of said cylinder cylinders and rollers, and flexible casings I partly surrounding the same, of springs. adapted to force said casings against the cylinders and rollers while allowing the casand the polished surface of said blades, such" friction removing the fibers lodged betweenthe teeth of said dofler, and the said fibers being forcibly straightened and rendered parallel by slidi'ngbe'tween said teeth,.due to the greater surface speed "of said cylinder.

In witness whereof I have signed this specification.

GUILLAUlVlE CLEMENT LAURENCY; 

